


The Reinvocation of the 25th Amendment

by goreds



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25676734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goreds/pseuds/goreds
Summary: Zoey is rescued, but that doesn't mean things just go back to normal.
Relationships: John Marbury/Leo McGarry
Kudos: 15





	The Reinvocation of the 25th Amendment

Jed leaves the Presidency for good exactly six months after Zoey returns home from her kidnapping attempt. They put in a VP just in time, and it doesn’t matter who he is--he’s not Jed, and Leo’s determined to exit when Jed leaves.

But that doesn’t mean he was anticipating Jed really, truly leaving. Jed calls him into the Oval, shortly after the new Veep is sworn into office. He sticks his hands in his pocket and looks up, but where Leo is expecting a defiant look, one that asks, “What’s next?”, instead he gets a look of deep sadness and a long explanation of why he’s decided to leave. Zoey’s not doing well, he says. Abbey’s furious, he says. The MS has flared up repeatedly over the past six months, he says.

And Leo knows all that is true. Zoey and Abbey have stayed away from the White House for the entirety of those six months. Jed’s been in and out of a sickbed for most of those six months. The senior staff has covered well, but it’s all come crashing down.

The Bartlet Administration, after such a glorious re-election effort, is over. Leo tries to protest, tries to stop Jed from doing the unthinkable, but when Leo thinks about it later, it’s not the unthinkable. Not really. But that’s not what breaks his heart.

It’s this: “Boy, you just had to push me into this.” Those are the last real words Jed says to him and god, they leave an impact. They punch him in the gut, really. And Jed’s right, of course, he’s right. This was all Leo’s idea. Jed chose to follow through on it, but he didn’t have to.

The truth was, Jed would always crumble under pressure from Leo, and that hurts to know. Why he does that, Leo’s not sure. He suspects it has to do with the two of them and how long they’ve been friends and something beyond friends, or maybe Jed just pities Leo and thinks he needs to help him. The first thought breaks him a little because he’s not sure they’re friends anymore; the second makes him feel hot rage. 

He assembles the senior staff in his office about an hour later, after he’s found time to calm himself, steel himself for what’s coming.

Josh is the first to react, his jaw dropping, hand flying up to his forehead, devastated. CJ doesn’t look overjoyed, but Leo can tell there’s something in her that seems positively peaceful about it. Will just stammers. And Toby...Toby stays after the others leave.

“So that’s it,” Toby scowls.

“That’s it.” Leo feels like scowling, but he keeps his face neutral.

“Did he say anything else?”

“Nothing of consequence.”

“This isn’t your fault,” and Toby crosses his arms.

“I didn’t say it was.”

“You didn’t say it, but your whole...self, says it.”

“You can go, Toby.”

“No, sir. You don’t deserve this. None of us do. After all the effort we spent getting him re-elected--” and Toby’s voice is getting louder, and Leo can feel the _thrum_ of a headache coming on, so he stops this.

“Go to your kids, Toby. You get to spend time with them now.”

Toby, eyes wide, glances towards the door to the Oval, and for a moment he looks like he might bolt into the room and yell at the President.

But he doesn’t, because he wouldn’t. He just nods and leaves. Leo slumps against his desk the moment he hears the click of his door really and truly shutting. God, he needs a--no, he doesn’t. He really doesn’t.

A few weeks later, he finds himself in his hotel suite, all alone, empty minibar, but only empty because he requested that years ago when he moved in after Jenny left him. He wishes to God that it wasn’t empty, because ever since he left the White House for good, he’s had this throbbing, terrible headache, and this terrible, gnawing craving.

Damn it.

Leo goes down to the hotel bar and prepares himself to ask for a whiskey, straight, but instead, he croaks out an order for a soda water. He finds an isolated spot and just...sits there, half-people watching, half-actively avoiding his own thoughts.

And then, he sees _him_ across the way. Tall, lanky, crooked, undeniable, with those dark brown eyes to match his dark brown, wavy hair. Lord John Marbury, _former_ British Ambassador to the United States, having stepped down just after Jed resigned.

And Marbury sees him, too. “Leo!” Marbury’s holding a tumbler of some dark liquor, that Leo is telling himself not to identify. “Mind if I join you?” Marbury doesn’t wait for an answer, merely plopping down across from Leo. The man is the most undignified member of the British nobility Leo’s ever known.

Well, he’s the only member of the British nobility Leo’s ever known. “Please, sit,” Leo says, trying to sound dry, but knowing he just sounds exhausted.

“What’s your poison?” Marbury pokes a finger in the direction of Leo’s drink.

“Soda.”

“Not off the wagon yet?”

“Not. Yet.” Leo bites out the words, hoping open hostility will push Marbury away from him.

But it doesn’t, of course. Marbury just cheerfully pushes on: “What have you been doing these past few weeks? I, personally, have been--”

“Lord John, if you don’t mind, I have a headache, and you’re not exactly contributing to its, y’know, going away.”

“It’s the craving, isn’t it?”

“What?” Leo snaps.

“There’s a reason you’re sitting in this bar. With a glass of soda that you wish was anything else. It’s the craving that’s causing your headache. And it’s your guilt over Jed Bartlet’s daughter getting kidnapped, leading to us all being out of a job, that’s causing the craving.”

“And here I thought Dr. Keyworth was in California.”

“Who?”

“Never mind.”

“Ah. Don’t fear, Leo. You’ll best this craving, just like all the others.”

“How would you know?”

“I know men who’ve bested their little ‘problem’ again and again. I’m looking at the prime example right now.” Marbury leans on the table and smiles at Leo, almost gratuitously.

“You’re too kind,” Leo says this even though he feels like Marbury is, in fact, teasing him. “What are you doing here?”

“Temporary quarters before I go back to the UK. Turns out the new ambassador doesn’t like house guests.”

“Ah.”

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“I’ve lived here for the past four years. Or so.”

“Or so? Leo, that seems like an inordinate amount of time spent living in a hotel. A nice hotel, but still. Not a home.”

“Not the British Embassy, either.”

“It might actually be nicer than that. I don’t think the district has given us the permits to fix it up since we burnt most of this city to the ground.”

That gives Leo a little chuckle. The throbbing in his head is almost gone, too.

Marbury downs his drink, places the glass on the table, and squeezes Leo’s hand, in a surprisingly tender gesture for the brusque man, Leo thinks. “Don’t worry, Leo, or Gerald, or whatever. You’ll find a purpose other than Jed Bartlet. I promise you that.”

And with that, Lord John Marbury swoops out, much the way he swooped in.


End file.
